Christopher B. Nelson, President, St. John’s College in Annapolis, offers an excellent critique to the president’s proposal to assign a ranking system to colleges and to tie federal aid to the college’s ranking. Nelson acknowledges that rising costs and the associated mounting student debt is a serious problem. But he points out that the fundamental flaw in the plan is the assumption that colleges can be effectively ranked.
“I am a father of five children, each of whom attended a different college or university. Why? Because the college or university that was best suited to one child was not best suited to another. Just as each and every college or university is different and has its own distinctive characteristics of academic and community life, so each student has his or her own life to discover and pursue, a life that is unique and cannot be rank-ordered. Rating of any kind suggests that all students are looking for something common; it also assumes that colleges are more alike than they actually are. Better instead to find ways of getting as much information as possible about each school to each student and let them make their own ratings — ones that will suit their own individual needs!”